Welcome to the AC Tropical Fish aquarium forum. Our aquarium forum is the place to discuss any aquarium related issue in a friendly environment. Our aquarium forum welcomes aquarists of all levels from beginners to experts. Please ask a question in the how to section of our forum or read the FAQ section if you have any questions. register to and become a part of our friendly aquarium forum community today.

75 Gallon New world cichlid stocking questions.

0

I have a 55 gallon and I am about to upgrade it to what I believe is a 75 or close to that. Right now I have 1 Convict 1 Firemouth 1 Jack Dempsey which is still young about 4 inches and 1 Green Terror which is still a baby at 1 inch. I know that my stocking is horrible but I inherited it and I am trying to make these fish happy.

Right now the only thing that seems off is that the JD hangs out around the top corner and sometimes the fish seem a little stressed. I was hoping to lose as few of these fish as possible and also hoping to add something like a Blue Acara, or a Thread Fin Geophagus. I take good care of the fish as far as the water quality goes.

Rehome the convict and GT. Go with Sev's, Acara and Geo's. I would go more toward tapajos because they hold their own a tad better in these conditions. Just make sure all geos are at least 3in in size when bought. THey are slowest growers of the tank and need a head start.

The firemouth is the main aggressor of the tank and it seems to be paired up with the convict so I think I am going to put both of them in a different tank so they are still together. Would JD, GT and Acarichthys heckelii fit?

In short term they might but the aggression will determine how it plays out. In the long term, if there are no aggression issues, no.The GT gets up to 12", the heckelii gets up to 8", and the JD gets up to 10", the bioload would be immense on that aquarium.

I would keep the convict and the firemouth. Then you could add some schooling fish. Medium to larger ones. Congo tetra. Possibly skirt tetra, though they may be nipped at. Tiger barbs. Buenos Aires tetra. Things along those lines. Bristle nose plecos would work. Emperor tetra. There are surely more. But those are what are coming to mind right now. I would stay away from more cichlids.

I would only keep two of the ones you have. Any two would/should work. Or re-home them all and start over. A 75 gallon will give you a decent amount of room, but not enough for some of the fish you are suggesting. Find two cichlids, and work around those.

Jack Dempsey are not always the aggressive fish their name suggests. Yours is probably feeling some stress from having the other cichlids with it. Plus they will grow to a bulky 12 inches. And produce a lot of waste. And as your's grows, it may start to live up to its name.

Green Terrors are about the same temperament as a JD. I think the JD and GT would work in a 75, but I would not keep anything else with them.

If you are wanting to keep a larger variety of cichlids, and are looking to get a bigger tank, I would look into a 125 too. A 75 would work fine for some things, and would definitely be a cool tank with some nice fish. With a 125 you could keep the fish you have, and still have some larger schooling ones too.

You could also simply divide the tank up if you had to to keep them from hurting each other anymore. Also I would get some dither fish they will take some aggro off the cichlids maybe some silver dollars or danios.

If you have enough hiding room and dithers you can keep a jack dempsey a convict and another in a 75g. I had a foot long jack, a 4 inch convict,a 10 inch pike cichlid, a raphael and pleco catfish along with a school of 8 silver dollars in my 75g and it worked fine; the cichlids would mouth lock but never really hurt each other though I'd lose a silver dollar once in awhile usually the smaller ones. I also had a ton of filtration with so many fish in there.

Maybe do like kim92 said with the 75g until the GT and jack are bigger then you could add the convict or maybe firemouth in.. If you have the filtration I'm a strong advopcate of dither fish to spread the aggro around when you have more than 1 cichlid.